The night passed uncomfortably. There is something about subterranean darkness that hits a person at a primeval level. We didn’t have enough oil in the lantern to burn it up during the night and so we found a barracks and holed up in it in the dark. Even the littlest sounds are pretty creepy in that situation. I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep that night. Every time someone got up to blunder outside to relieve themselves, which was quite often in the case of some of the elderly people, I imagined we were being invaded by the grub monsters. The longest stretch of uninterrupted sleep I got was probably thirty minutes or so. By the time the weak light of the dawn started feebly filtering down through the air shafts, I was sleep deprived and not in a good mood. It also didn’t help that there were a few people who snored quite loudly. If we were back on Earth, I think a referral to a sleep study for sleep apnea treatment would have been in the cards for a couple of them.
Thankfully, soon there was enough light to see. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t very bright at the best of times. But some illumination beat the hell out of endless darkness, even if the amount of light under the mountain was barely enough to cast things into a permanent twilight. I couldn’t see very far and there were areas that weren’t close to any of the air shafts that the natural light couldn’t reach but that wasn’t my problem. Segerick’s people had wanted a better place to stay and I had found them one. What they did with it, how the chose to make a go of it, that wasn’t my direct concern. We had been gone too long and needed to head back to the company while the things we had found and harvested still had some value.
Once everyone was up and around and we had all partaken in a quite meager breakfast, I led Segerick and some of his more able bodied followers back out into the tunnel towards the exit from the complex. While we walked, I explained how to get to the observation post from the center of the town. Conversation cut off abruptly when we reached the entrance cavern and the wide vista of a glittering ocean revealed itself.
I think that some people were taken aback by how high above the ocean the shelf was. From up here, the beginnings of the switchback path were obvious but I doubt that they would be equally obvious from the deck of a ship out on the ocean. There was just too much overgrowth obscuring it. I hoped that there weren’t many of Segerick’s people who had a fear of heights. The path itself was at least six or eight feet wide, but I imagined getting close to the edge, especially near the top, would be somewhat unnerving.
“When you clear that path, leave a row of trees around the outer edge as both camouflage and a guard rail of sorts,” I said. “You don’t want to advertise your presence. You probably want to organize any work down by the ocean in a way that keeps you hidden from passing ships. The last thing we need is to go through all the work of getting you here only to have you swept up by a gang of slavers.”
“I guess that makes sense,” Segerick said. “We’ll have to be fairly careful. I don’t think that very many ships sail to this side of the island but it is not impossible that someone might choose to. Like you, I would hate to lose a better home as soon as we have found it.”
“I agree,” I replied. “You also need to be aware that there are other exits in the cavern system. We found one full of bones, many of them human. But those people were clearly long dead. If you go that way, don’t disturb the bones. Doing so would be very obvious to anyone who found the cave exploring. If their deaths can provide even a scant degree of protection to your people then you probably need to be ready to set aside your sensibilities to give yourself the best chance of survival that you can. I am not trying to dictate how you run things here. If you find the place and want to bury the bones and clean up the room, go ahead. I just want to make certain you understand there are costs to that decision. We are leaving today. We hope to be back soon with tools and other necessary provisions but on this island there are no guarantees.”
Standing on that shelf, the sea breeze felt wonderful after enduring days in the stale and still air under the mountain.
“I think we can work with this,” Segerick said.
“You should be able to find things to eat down there,” I said. “And I am certain there are things to hunt and be hunted by on this side of the island as well.”
“Will you leave us some oil?” he asked. “We need to spend the day making some torches.”
“We’ll leave you everything we can spare,” I assured him. “That includes a lantern or two, and when we come back we will try to bring more oil but you are going to need to ration it carefully. At some point some of you are going to want to explore some of the passages that we didn’t have time to poke around in and the lanterns are best for that work.”
“When are you leaving?” he said.
“As soon as we get you back inside and I get a chance to talk to Bethany to see if she is staying or coming along,” I replied.
“Thanks to all of you,” he said. “I am starting to believe, just a little, that your plan might work out for us.”
That’s one of us, I thought. There were still so damn many moving parts involved that I could barely see the beginning of this convoluted mess much less the end of it.
After a few minutes of conversation with his people, Segerick indicated that they were ready to go back inside. The trip back seemed to take less time, mostly because the others with us were in better spirits rather than feeling like they were being led to their doom.
When we got back to camp I approached Bethany. “What did you decide?” I asked her.
“I think you are right,” she responded. “I believe I will stay here. I think I can contribute and you can always take me in just before we leave.”
“I think you are making a good decision and I wish all of you well. We need to head back right away, so I will see you when I see you.”
“Thanks for everything,” she replied. “I am not certain that I would be looking out for anyone but myself if our situations were reversed.”
“That would definitely be the more rational thing to do,” I said with a little laugh. “I’m not always the most rational person, though. Take care and I hope to see you soon.”
We kept enough oil for a few minutes of lantern use and distributed the rest. Then, after bidding the gathered people farewell, it was back into the mountain. Once we got far enough away from the assembly, the lantern was extinguished and I tapped into my magic.
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The journey back through the mountain went much more quickly this time. We stopped off at the former camp and picked up as many valuable things as we could reasonably carry, then we headed down the mountain. Going down was easier than climbing and by my estimate we could probably reach the camp sometime the next day. We were laden with pelts and makeshift bags of iridescent feathers, and our pockets and packs were full of uncut gemstones and small chunks of gold. I hoped that we wouldn’t be ambushed on our way down the mountain because our burdens were not slight and would inhibit our ability to effectively defend ourselves.
Surprisingly, the rest of the day passed without incident. Life was all around us, but none of that life had grown to large enough proportions to pose an active threat to us. The biggest fright of the day happened when Aleyda almost stepped on a snake that was coiled up by the side of the path. None of us knew enough about the island to know whether the snakes there were venomous but nobody was eager to find out. Bowen teasingly suggested that I get bit to test things since I would likely survive. As much fun as that sounded, I declined. Spending hours while venom burned its way through my blood vessels seemed like a shitty way to spend a day to try to prove a point.
Knowing where you are headed makes things so much easier. Although our recollections were somewhat imperfect, we went with the group consensus and made our way back down the mountain without getting substantially lost. Not blundering into dead end trails and having to retrace our steps certainly saved a bunch of time. When we passed the area where we had fought the other company, I saw little evidence that they had ever existed. There was no stench of rotting bodies. The island’s scavengers had clearly feasted well. When the sun was setting we had made it back down to the area where we had encountered Bethany and fought the nasty birds. We decided to camp there for the night.
I slept better that night, even though I somehow drew middle watch again. On my watch, I could hear things rooting around and what sounded like a couple of battles between creatures in the vicinity but nothing disturbed us. That started working on my nerves. Things were just too quiet, I kept thinking that the other shoe was about to drop. It had been a couple of days since the last time we had fought and given what we had seen on this island we were long overdue. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t looking for trouble but the law of averages being what it was, I thought that when trouble inevitably found us we would get paid back with interest.
Trouble never found us though. There was one close call when we were getting near to camp walking down the main pathway towards town. While we were returning, expeditions from other companies were departing. We ran into a group of five orcs that looked like they were fresh off the boat. Their gear was nearly clean and they looked well rested.
“What have we here?” their obvious leader asked. “You look like you have too much to carry and it is tiring you out. Why don’t you hand your loot over and we’ll carry it for you?”
“We’re good,” I said. “There is a lot more to be had farther up the mountain. Strong fellows like you should have no problem earning their share.”
“Maybe we want your share,” he replied.
“Is it worth bleeding and maybe dying over?” I asked him.
“Killing you three seems less risky than going up the mountain,” he said.
“You aren’t asking yourself a very important question,” I said. “That question is how did we get all of this, these pelts and other things? We didn’t find them laying around on the ground. We fought for them. We bled for them. Are you willing to die for them? That’s where this is heading. You are looking at it all wrong. You think it is easier to defeat us than the creatures on the mountain but who was it that just came back from killing those creatures? Us, that’s who. We were the predators. Somehow, though, you’ve convinced yourself that we are the easier marks because we are more familiar to you. I guarantee, though, that if you are right and we are wrong and you can defeat us, some of you will not be walking away from this fight. And by some of you, I definitely mean you. You will be the first to fall.” Then, I smiled at him in a menacing fashion.
That smile was not just for show. I had noticed another group of figures making their way up the trail from the direction of town. As they got closer, I realize they were familiar to me. How could they not be? I had spent weeks on a ship with them. There were five of them. Daggers was in the lead and with him hiked Dregu, Pregu, Rilug and unfortunately Yahg. As they got closer, I called out to them.
“Hey guys, these idiots are trying to rob us.”
“James, is that you?” Rilug yelled back. “We thought you were all dead.”
The leader of the adventurers turned bandits spun around and looked back down the trail just in time to see Yahg charging up it, quickly outpacing the rest of his group. Yahg was angry. How did I know? First, he was always angry. Second, he muttered to himself unintelligibly and nearly foamed at the mouth. I had never seen someone foam at the mouth before. Objectively, if it happened it would be quite interesting. I wondered how worked up someone had to get for that to happen. Yahg was large even for an orc and even though I had seen him humbled by Aleyda he still looked terrifying. And just like that the ones who had been doing the threatening became the threatened.
“Now, wait,” the leader of the other troop exclaimed. “This is all a big misunderstanding…”
That was all he got out before Yahg lowered his shoulder and powered through the leader blasting him off his feet. Then, Yahg settled on top of the other orc and began punching him over and over. Saliva dripped down Yahg’s chin and began spattering over his opponent’s chest and face. A couple of the other company had drawn their weapons and had begun moving towards Yahg to try to save their leader. The three of us stepped in front of them.
“Are you stupid or something?” I asked them. “Can you not count? You are outnumbered and frankly look underskilled. If this is the place you choose to die, I guess we can’t stop you. Honestly, I would be happy to oblige you. But you still have a chance to walk away from this alive.”
They glanced at each other and put their weapons away. The other members of our company having just arrived at the scene of the altercation seemed to help them make up their mind.
I walked over to Yahg. Looking down at the enemy leader, I noticed that his face had been pulped into an almost unrecognizable mess and that he had lost consciousness at some point. It was clear that Yahg was just going to keep beating him until there was no life left in him. We couldn’t have that. If these orcs were from a large company we would have to watch our backs the entire rest of the time on the island.
“Alright, Yahg, you’ve proven your point,” I said. He didn’t seem to hear me and continued raining down punishment. Turning to the rest of our company, I asked whether anyone had any clue how to interrupt the beating. Nobody had any good suggestions.
Lacking any better idea, I walked over and emptied my waterskin on Yahg’s head. He definitely noticed that. Springing up, he spun to me with murder in his eyes.
“Sorry, Yahg. I couldn’t get your attention otherwise. I think you have proved your point.”
My words didn’t seem to penetrate his battle lust. He started moving towards me like he was preparing to attack. Then, Aleyda stepped in front of me. I swear he cringed slightly when he caught sight of her.
“Good job, Yahg,” I said. “Thanks for helping defend us.” Then, I stepped forward and started showing him some of the stuff that we were carrying. That caught his attention.
“I’ll help you carry,” he said, shouldering part of the burden. The rest of his group pitched in as well, significantly lightening our load.
We all headed back to our camp while four members of the other company’s party fruitlessly tried to wake up their leader.